Lotta screenplay issues here. For working so hard on their farm, why do they look so young and fresh and alive - farming must not be that tough. They had a horrible flood at the beginning of the film and another at the end. Why didn't they plan and shore up the levee? Sissy was caught on a tractor for most of the day, arm crunched by a drive train; lost a lot of blood, but a cast for a while and she pops back to tendin the farm. Mel doesn't ask about that. Just a lot of unanswered questions in a shoddy script. Good points: the cinematography is excellent as is the musical score. Oh, and to get money Tom takes a job as a scab in a union steelworkers mill and doesn't realize it?????? It's not a bad movie ~ it's not a good movie ~ it's a depressing movie because you think after all is said and done, they are set up for failure during the next crop season.

From the opening sequence, you can tell this is a movie that is going to take it's time to tell a story, to introduce, and take you into this world. What begins as a gentle rain shower turns into a flood, as we are introduced to the Garveys, rushing about with shovels and bags, and a bulldozer, trying to save their farm from the rising water. They've done this before, we see, as Mae Garvey (Sissy Spacek) hands her daughter the "good quilt" to take upstairs, and gathers family photos and other irreplacables, putting them out of harm's way upstairs, and as they head outside into the weather again, we see the flood waters lapping at the back steps.

The farm has been in Tom Garvey's (Mel Gibson) family for generations, so he's reluctant to sell up and leave, especially because the offer to buy comes from Joe Wade (Scott Glenn), Mae Garvey's former beau, who wants to flood the whole area (in the name of the Almighty Dollar) to build a hydroelectric plant.

But times are indeed tough, and the bank is reluctant to loan any more money, which Tom and Mae desperately need to stay afloat. In desperation, Tom takes a job at an iron-works, but doesn't know until he gets there that he's part of a group of "scabs" brought in to work while the contractors of the iron works are on strike. Ripped away from the idyllic river-front farm, he is unable to leave, lest the contractors see him doing so, and beat him to death without a second thought. 4.50 an hour. 50 hour week. 10 minute "p*ss break" every two hours...you do the math...that's hard work!

Meanwhile, "back on the farm", Mae has her own problems in a scene that still grips my gut to this day: fixing a piece of farm equipment hundreds of metres away from the farm house, she gets her arm trapped in a cog-and-chain, and is unable to free herself, plus she starts bleeding from the wound, really badly. I wasn't expecting such a nail-biting scene in such a seemingly placid film. It was really well done.

Not only that, but she has the renewed attentions of Joe Wade to deal with as he plays "knight in shining armour" to the injured Mae while Tom is stuck at the factory, and lets her know in no uncertain terms that he wants her back, using the "I can look after your kids better than Tom" argument to try to convince her. While obviously the "what could have been" crosses her mind, she loves her husband, and tells Joe to back off.

The scenes between Gibson and Spacek are great. They have some real chemistry and raw emotions you rarely see in films these days. Mel does a great "tough-guy exterior" thing when Joe gives Mae a ride home from the store, but as he comes on to Mae afterwards in the kitchen, we can tell that although he's doing it coz he's attracted to her, he is also doing it because her old flame just gave her a ride home.

All the performances are great, and very real, from the townsfolk shouting "no sale!" at the auction to the grimy iron works factory workers, to Tom and Mae's kids (Shane Bailey and Becky Jo Lynch), who give startlingly believable performances.

This film is a quiet one best watched in the evening, and with the lights off...the velvety cinematography and rich John Williams score will enrapture you from the start to the moving final scene. Someone else on here commented that the photography is like a beautiful old oil painting...I couldn't agree more. Enjoy.

Tom (Mel Gibson) and Mae Garvey (Sissy Spacek) struggle to keep their farm afloat after a devastating flood. Joe Wade (Scott Glenn) has a scheme to build a dam to bring water to his land. To do it, he would need to buy out all the farmers including the Garveys. Tom needs a loan but Joe Wade has lined up the bank and political backers against them.

It is the little guy struggling against the big guy. It is also about Tom's single-mindedness. Tom is not necessarily a sympathetic guy. He is stubborn beyond reason. He has a mean streak in him. This makes the simplistic movie structure of small-guy-makes-good not so simplistic. Sissy Spacek is able to soften him image somewhat. There are a couple of great scenes in the mix. The auction scene is the most memorable and heart breaking. The faces in the crowd says it all. The other is the strike. The ending of which is another great scene for a different reason. This starts out yet another small farmer struggle movie. In fact, it's the last of three big such releases of that year. It turns into a man obsessed against the river.